Exam summary: organisational behaviour
1.1: Introduction organisational behaviour and human
resource management (HRM)
Human resource management: the management of organisational workforce human resources,
to achieve individual, organisational and societal goals.
Individual goals: development, satisfaction
Organisational goals: financial goals, productivity, efficiency
Societal goals: sustainability, curing patients
HRM has shifted from controlling people to focussing on the long term commitment, business
oriented view. Reminder: what is good for the employees is also good for the employer.
Strategic human resource management (SHRM): making HRM part of the business strategy by
planned deployments and activities to enable achieving organisational goals.
Hard versus soft HRM
1. Hard HRM: focus on added value, economic values and financial performance.
Michigan model: focus on organisation strategy and based on incentives for employees, so
rewarding them. This is hard HRM. McGregor theory X assumes that people need to be
supervised/controlled and are not motivated by themselves.
2. Soft HRM: focus on moral values, sees employees as human beings with emotions.
Employees are central, not costs.
Harvard model focussed on development that will encourage people to perform at their bests.
Takes wellbeing, context and situational factors also into account, McGregor theory Y.
We look at hard and soft HRM as two sides of the same coin, the strategic and human sides, you
want them both.
,HRM bundles: bundle of HR practices that increase organisational performance. Three types:
1. Empowerment: self-managing,
employee involvement
2. Motivation: performance feedback,
goal setting
3. Skills: staffing, training etc.
This can be placed in the AMO-model:
Effective discretionary effort: doing the
extra tasks you don’t have to do but you will do (organisational citizenship behaviour).
HR differentiation HR study should be different for different groups in the organisation. You can
divide staff in four groups based on uniqueness and strategic value (Lapak & Snell):
Uniqueness: specialized, firm specific, rare
Strategic value: the potential of this group
of employees to increase organisational
effectiveness
Black box we believe that HRM leads
to better performance, but we don’t know
exactly how.
How HRM leads to firm performance
Reversed causality: performing well leads
to more money for better HRM.
Contingency and/or control variables: are
the moderators. For example the Cordaan
organisation didn’t have right employees
to get the right firm performance.
, Bath tub model(s)
The idea of the bath tub model is that you have two level: organisational (surface article of West)
and individual (underneath). So on the surface you see the relationship between HRM and
performance, and underneath you see the mechanisms that will lead to this relationship.
Intended HR (= designed) Actual HR (= implemented by line managers) perceived HR (=
perception of employees). This actual employee behaviour will lead to organisational performance.
So the HR managers and line managers need to communicate and be in balance.
1.2: Contextual SHRM framework
Context matters for HRM, you need to get the best approach for your organisation. We use an
balanced approach were we look at the external context and the organisational context itself.
There are two important hypotheses in HRM:
1. Best practices approach: universalistic approach, a set of HR practices will always work
(underpinning layer)
2. Best-fit approach: contingent approach, you need to recognize the context (surface layer)
For the best practices approach we have Pfeffer’s 7 best practices:
1. Selective recruitment and selection
2. Extensive training
3. Performance related pay (PRP)
4. Teamwork
5. Communication
6. Reduction of status differences
7. Job security
The approach of these 7 best practices are different in the USA compared to the western/European
settings. We do already have most of these practices everywhere.
Best fit approach, within this approach we take context into account, we distinguish:
- Internal context: history, administrative heritage, culture (power/family)
- External context: market mechanisms, institutional mechanisms (legalisations, norms and
values, justice, sustainability)
Contextually Based Human Recourse Theory
We have three dimensions in this contextual based human resource theory:
1. Product/market/technology dimension (PMT): these are the competitive mechanisms you
have to be aware of the kind of demands imposed on you, out of the marketplace: efficiency,
1.1: Introduction organisational behaviour and human
resource management (HRM)
Human resource management: the management of organisational workforce human resources,
to achieve individual, organisational and societal goals.
Individual goals: development, satisfaction
Organisational goals: financial goals, productivity, efficiency
Societal goals: sustainability, curing patients
HRM has shifted from controlling people to focussing on the long term commitment, business
oriented view. Reminder: what is good for the employees is also good for the employer.
Strategic human resource management (SHRM): making HRM part of the business strategy by
planned deployments and activities to enable achieving organisational goals.
Hard versus soft HRM
1. Hard HRM: focus on added value, economic values and financial performance.
Michigan model: focus on organisation strategy and based on incentives for employees, so
rewarding them. This is hard HRM. McGregor theory X assumes that people need to be
supervised/controlled and are not motivated by themselves.
2. Soft HRM: focus on moral values, sees employees as human beings with emotions.
Employees are central, not costs.
Harvard model focussed on development that will encourage people to perform at their bests.
Takes wellbeing, context and situational factors also into account, McGregor theory Y.
We look at hard and soft HRM as two sides of the same coin, the strategic and human sides, you
want them both.
,HRM bundles: bundle of HR practices that increase organisational performance. Three types:
1. Empowerment: self-managing,
employee involvement
2. Motivation: performance feedback,
goal setting
3. Skills: staffing, training etc.
This can be placed in the AMO-model:
Effective discretionary effort: doing the
extra tasks you don’t have to do but you will do (organisational citizenship behaviour).
HR differentiation HR study should be different for different groups in the organisation. You can
divide staff in four groups based on uniqueness and strategic value (Lapak & Snell):
Uniqueness: specialized, firm specific, rare
Strategic value: the potential of this group
of employees to increase organisational
effectiveness
Black box we believe that HRM leads
to better performance, but we don’t know
exactly how.
How HRM leads to firm performance
Reversed causality: performing well leads
to more money for better HRM.
Contingency and/or control variables: are
the moderators. For example the Cordaan
organisation didn’t have right employees
to get the right firm performance.
, Bath tub model(s)
The idea of the bath tub model is that you have two level: organisational (surface article of West)
and individual (underneath). So on the surface you see the relationship between HRM and
performance, and underneath you see the mechanisms that will lead to this relationship.
Intended HR (= designed) Actual HR (= implemented by line managers) perceived HR (=
perception of employees). This actual employee behaviour will lead to organisational performance.
So the HR managers and line managers need to communicate and be in balance.
1.2: Contextual SHRM framework
Context matters for HRM, you need to get the best approach for your organisation. We use an
balanced approach were we look at the external context and the organisational context itself.
There are two important hypotheses in HRM:
1. Best practices approach: universalistic approach, a set of HR practices will always work
(underpinning layer)
2. Best-fit approach: contingent approach, you need to recognize the context (surface layer)
For the best practices approach we have Pfeffer’s 7 best practices:
1. Selective recruitment and selection
2. Extensive training
3. Performance related pay (PRP)
4. Teamwork
5. Communication
6. Reduction of status differences
7. Job security
The approach of these 7 best practices are different in the USA compared to the western/European
settings. We do already have most of these practices everywhere.
Best fit approach, within this approach we take context into account, we distinguish:
- Internal context: history, administrative heritage, culture (power/family)
- External context: market mechanisms, institutional mechanisms (legalisations, norms and
values, justice, sustainability)
Contextually Based Human Recourse Theory
We have three dimensions in this contextual based human resource theory:
1. Product/market/technology dimension (PMT): these are the competitive mechanisms you
have to be aware of the kind of demands imposed on you, out of the marketplace: efficiency,
